Individuals desirous of qualifying as Certified Public Accountant (CPA) have to clear the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination that has been designed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy administers this professional course. Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs are offered by business schools in the United States of America and these may be accredited / recognized by any or all of the three accrediting authorities in the country. These three accrediting authorities are International Assembly of Collegiate Business Education, Association of Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, and Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs. But this even the University or college that has such business schools have to be recognized by accrediting bodies such as Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Western Association of Colleges and Schools, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, and Council for Higher Education Accredition. Individual desirous of enrolling for this program has to clear GMAT.
CPA program imparts comprehensive knowledge of accounts and auditing, taxation, and standards and policies related to these matters. In addition, the CPA also acquires skills to analyze the financial data, as well as plan for the future. There are statutory requirements such as filing annual returns with revenue department, and company law departments. CPA becomes well versed with these as well. Effectively, a qualified CPA can be an auditor, or a chief accountant of a business enterprise, or a consultant. This program differs from chartered financial analyst (CFA) as CFA focuses on investments, and analysis related to these investments.
Master of Business Administration is a qualification that lays greater emphasis on non-financial aspect of the business, such as human resource management, management of operations, and marketing, even though eventually all these result in better financial stature of the business. In addition, accounts and finance are also covered in MBA program, though not as extensively as in CPA program.
Because of variation in emphasis, an MBA person is usually confined to business environment. A CPA on the other hand may also be recruited by a school, government, public enterprise, or at national levels. But a CPA may have little to offer when the marketing strategies are being devised or staff requirement is being assessed being essentially finance and accounts related professional. Because a person with MBA has slightly more to offer than a regular CPA, and because all skills of a CPA may not be used in a business, individuals with an MBA qualification have a slight edge over people with CPA qualification. This however gets negated when a person has both the qualifications.